This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Kasrils, Ronnie

1938 -

Kasrils was born and educated in Johannesburg.

He was appointed Secretary of the ANC-aligned Congress of Democrats in Natal in 1961, was a founder member of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and a member of Natal Regional Command (1961); in 1963 he became Commander of Natal Regional Command. He completed a general military course and specialist course in military engineering in Odessa, USSR in 1963.

Kasrils served the ANC for 27 years, based variously in London, Luanda, Maputo, Swaziland, Botswana and Lusaka. He was a member of uMkhonto weSizwe's High Command, Chief of MK Intelligence after completing a specialist course in intelligence. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier in the USSR in 1983, serving on the ANC's Politico-Military Council from 1985 to 1989. He has served on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) since December 1986.

Kasrils has been a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC since 1987 and also worked underground for the ANC in South Africa on Operation Vula, from 1990 to 1991. He headed the ANC's Campaign Section from 1991 to1994 and was a member of the Transitional Executive Council's (TEC) Sub-Council on Defence in 1994.

He was appointed Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of South Africa (1994-1999), and served as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry from 1999 - 2004. He has held the position of Minister of Intelligence of the Republic of South Africa since 29 April 2004.